


Catching Up

by AnnieVH



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 18:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6089608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieVH/pseuds/AnnieVH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Swanfire prompt: They stayed together, they're happily married, and they're on their way to Storybrooke to break the curse. Emma's a little skeptical, but she trusts Neal. Henry is younger than in canon, (like 4 or 5.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catching Up

**Author's Note:**

> Beta: MaddieBonanaFana

Five years was a long time, and Neal began to hope August had forgotten all about them. Or at least, had lost track of them after they reached Vancouver. One could always be hopeful. For the first time in two hundred years, life was good. Neal had a wife, a respectful job, and a five-year-old who thought the world of him. Henry knew nothing of his parents' past, be it the crime or their progeny. If Neal had any say in it, things would stay that way. They had found Tallahassee. With a little more maple syrup than planned, but it was still good.

However, the past always finds a way to catch up with us, and so the postcard came one morning, delivered by a filthy pigeon. Because, apparently, the mail was too mainstream for fairy tale creatures. Storybrooke, Maine. A phone scribbled on the back of the postcard.

Neal avoided the call for as long as he could, until curiosity and worry got the best of him. The fight that followed was long, with August trying to argue as rationally as he could, but coming across like a hypocrite.

Neal had his arguments ready, though. They had a child now, they couldn't get involved in a war, they couldn't just drop everything and come to the middle of nowhere, the police were still looking for him- and so on.

August replied the only way he knew would get his attention: “Emma's parents are there.”

And that had sealed their fate. Now, he couldn't go back home and act as if everything was alright while Emma's family – the family she'd thought had abandoned her and wanted nothing to do with her – was trapped, waiting for their daughter to come to their rescue.

Because she was the Savior.

It was the weight of the world to bestow upon her shoulders. And that without even mentioning the Evil Queen, the magic, the truth about his own past. Papa was waiting in Storybrooke as well, he was sure of it.

“You'll need a cover,” August told him. “She can't know. She has to believe on her own.”

“I wouldn't even try to explain it,” Neal said. “She'd just think I'm crazy.”

He told her the police was on their trail. That set things in motion pretty fast. Emma didn't ask a lot of questions, too worried their family might be broken if they didn't act quickly. Within a couple of weeks, they were packed and heading for Storybrooke, which, according to Neal, was an inconspicuous little town where no one would think to look. He had a friend there. They would fit right in. He thought it would be hard to find the way, but Emma barely had to glance at the map. It was like the town was calling to her.

Neal fought the urge to grab the wheel himself and turn the car around many times, but when he saw the sign _You are entering Storybrooke_ , something must have shown on his face, because Emma asked, “You okay?”

No, he was not okay. He was as far from okay as one could possibly be.

But they were still together and, for better or worse, they were coming home.

 


End file.
